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Rick Perry, the U.S. Energy Secretary, suggests Texas college student election was 'stolen'

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Updated: 8:00 PM EDT Mar 22, 2017

APSOURCE: AP

Rick Perry, the U.S. Energy Secretary, suggests Texas college student election was 'stolen'

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Updated: 8:00 PM EDT Mar 22, 2017

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, a former Texas governor and Texas A&M University Aggies Yell Leader, said Wednesday the election of the first openly gay president of the institution's student body was "stolen" and that the student who had the most votes was disqualified through a process that "made a mockery of due process and transparency."

Rick Perry suggests election of the first gay Texas A&M student body president was 'stolen'

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In an extraordinary submission to the Houston Chronicle's Editorial Board, the energy secretary also suggested that Bobby Brooks' victory was engineered by the Student Government Association in a quest for diversity on the traditionally conservative campus.

Brooks was declared the winner in the campus election by the SGA even though he came in second in the vote count to Robert McIntosh , who is white and was disqualified by student election officials.

McIntosh was disqualified on charges that he did not provide receipts for glow sticks used in a campaign video. He also faced charges of voter intimidation, which were later dismissed on appeal.

The student body's Judicial Court, Perry said, "admitted that the charges were minor and technical, but incredibly, chose to uphold the disqualification."

"The desire of the electorate is overturned, and thousands of student votes are disqualified, because of free glow sticks that appeared for eleven seconds of a months-long campaign," Perry wrote. "Apparently glow sticks merit the same punishment as voter intimidation."

Perry then went on to suggest that the outcome would have been different had McIntosh not been a white male.

"What if Mr. Brooks had been the candidate disqualified? Would the administration and the student body have allowed the first gay student body president to be voided for using charity glow sticks? Would the student body have allowed a black student body president to be disqualified on anonymous charges of voter intimidation?"